might give the greatest relief to their beauty or most advantageously
display the graces of their age. But whilst this brilliant assemblage
attracted the eyes and hearts of every one besides, the Caliph
scrutinized each in his turn with a malignant avidity that passed for
attention, and selected from their number the fifty whom he judged the
Giaour would prefer.

With an equal show of kindness as before, he proposed to celebrate a
festival on the plain for the entertainment of his young favourites, who
he said ought to rejoice still more than all at the restoration of his
health, on account of the favours he intended for them.

The Caliph's proposal was received with the greatest delight, and soon
published through Samarah; litters, camels, and horses were prepared.
Women and children, old men and young, every one placed himself in the
station he chose. The cavalcade set forward, attended by all the
confectioners in the city and its precincts; the populace following on
foot composed an amazing crowd, and occasioned no little noise; all was
joy, nor did any one call to mind what most of them had suffered when
they first travelled the road they were now passing so gaily.

The evening was serene, the air refreshing, the sky clear, and the
flowers exhaled their fragrance; the beams of the declining sun, whose
mild splendour reposed on the summit of the mountain, shed a glow of
ruddy light over its green declivity and the white flocks sporting upon
it; no sounds were audible save the murmurs of the Four Fountains, and
the reeds and voices of shepherds calling to each other from different
eminences.

The lovely innocents proceeding to the destined sacrifice added not a